Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves - Story

Story

Set one year after the events of Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Sly Cooper and Bentley attempt to open the Cooper Vault on Kaine Island, with the help of mystery people. Unfortunately, they are intercepted by Dr. M, the owner of the island. Sly and Bentley escape, but a monster grabs Sly. During this scene, Sly's life flashes before his eyes, and the game moves back into the past. It is explained that Sly had come to learn of the Cooper Vault being hidden on Kaine Island from one of his father's colleagues. The vault contains the accumulated wealth of the Cooper Clan built up over thousands of years. Sly went to find the vault, only to discover that M had built a fortress on the island in an attempt to get at the wealth hidden in the vault. Sly realized that he needed a gang of master thieves in order to get past M's extensive security; he needed the Cooper Gang back in action.

First, Sly and Bentley decide to first find Murray, who left the team due to his belief that it was his fault for causing Bentley's leg injury, but learns a mob boss Octavio who "runs" Venice, Italy where Murray has been sighted recently. Sly catches up with Dimitri again, who is locked in jail, while looking for Murray, who agrees to find Murray if Sly distracts the police chief controlling the jail Carmelita Fox and steals the cell keys. After being chased around Venice by Carmelita, he finds Murray again, who helps him escape. He tells Sly he has moved onto being a trainee for a peace loving figure known as the Guru in order to become more peaceful. Murray refuses to rejoin the gang until he fulfills the task the Guru gave to him, to wait until the canals are clean, forcing Sly and Bentley to take down Octavio who has been polluting the canals with tar as part of a scheme to threaten the city into liking opera again, by sinking buildings. After putting together some plans, they destroy Octavio's comeback recital, but he injures Bentley, making Murray so mad that he quits his training and battles Octavio, defeating him. Octavio is arrested, and Murray rejoins the team.

After Murray misses the Guru, the gang flies to Yuendumu, Northern Territory, Australia, to find the Guru, but construction by miners has taken over his land. After finding him locked up, Sly discovers that the Guru refuses to leave his cell until he has his moon stone and staff. After Sly finds them, Bentley gives them back to the Guru and he breaks out, pulling off tasks and agreeing to join the team if Sly and the gang help clear the miners from his land. To do so, they have to destroy the Mask of Dark Earth, an evil demonic mask that goes on to people's faces and makes its wearer an out of control giant and makes them more powerful. After Carmelita Fox goes after Sly, the Mask of Dark Earth gets stuck to her face, and she starts growing at an uncontrollable rate. Sly has to climb up her bootlegs and cut it off. After it is destroyed by Carmelita's mercenaries, the Guru joins the Cooper Gang.

In desperate need of an RC Combat expert, Bentley meets a Dutch mouse named Penelope online, who agrees to join their team if they can take down her boss the Black Baron, an expert flier who has his own flying competition (ACES Flying Competition) and has always won. The gang travels to Kinderdijk, Holland, Netherlands, where they enter Sly in the flying competition. While there, they meet Dimitri who agrees to tell them where to find the competition roster, but only if Sly agrees return the favor. When Muggshot, Sly's former enemy in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is flying in the competition, Bentley comes up with a plan and gets him thrown back in jail. After more plans are pulled off, Sly beats the Black Baron, leading to him battling Sly on the wing off a plane. When he is beaten, he is revealed to be Penelope, and Sly wins the competition. Penelope tells the crew that there was a reason for being the Baron because she was too young to enter the competition herself. Penelope joins the gang without hesitation.

When they need a demolitions expert beyond Bentley, they realize they must recruit Sly's old enemy, the Panda King, from Sly Cooper and The Thievius Raccoonus. After finding he left his life of crime, they confront him and he agrees to join, but only if they help him rescue his daughter, Jing King, from the evil General Tsao, who kidnapped her and is forcing her to marry him. During this time, Murray locates and recovers the old team van that was in the vicinity, aided first by Penelope and then by the Panda King, who recognises the bond Murray shares with the van is the same he shares with his daughter. Sly must defeat Tsao and get Bentley's laptop back, which was stolen by Tsao. After finally rescuing Jing King, Tsao is arrested by Carmelita, who escorts him to jail and Panda King joins the gang.

Later, Dimitri e-mails Sly and reminds him of the favor he owed him back in Holland, so Dimitri buys tickets for the whole gang for a cruise to Blood Bath Bay, the Caribbean Sea. After learning that his grandfather, Reme Lousteau, had his diving gear and treasure he had collected stolen by Black Spot Pete, they attempt to get it back, but find the map to it to have been stolen by Captain LeFwee, another dangerous pirate whose known as the smartest man on the seven seas. After pulling off some jobs, they sail off to find Reme Lousteau's treasure and gear, only when found by Sly, they are confronted by LeFwee, who kidnaps Penelope and steals the treasure. However Dimitri keeps his diving gear. After preparing to take him on, they confront LeFwee, Bentley managing to outwit him. During the getaway, Bentley is injured, and Penelope battles LeFwee and knocks him into the habour where he is eaten by sharks. Thus, Dimitri joins the team as their frogman, and Bentley and Penelope become a couple.

The game then returns to the present, where Sly is struggling with M. As he's about to be eaten, Sly realizes he's been "cowardly" towards Carmelita, regretting never telling her how he really feels about her. After seeing Bentley and Penelope together, he now realizes what life is about. Just then, Carmelita arrives in force on the island, intending to capture both Sly and Dr M, and battles M, defeating his monster and allowing Sly to escape. She ends up fighting it out at sea. After the battle, the gang all work to retrieve Sly's cane, which is the key to the vault, and battle M several times. During these events, we learn that M was apparently not treated as an equal by Sly's father, and that he believes Sly is the same.

After fighting security, they finally break into the vault, where Sly sees the history of his ancestors. Meanwhile, M breaks into the vault and battles Sly. After Sly emerges victorious, M once again compares him to his father, but Sly insists everyone is an individual, and that he is just himself. Carmelita arrives to arrest them both, however Dr. M shoots a blast towards her, with Sly jumping in front of her to keep her from her death. Carmelita defeats M and checks up on Sly. He appears to suffer from amnesia, in which Carmelita pretends that Sly is her partner. Together, they escape, and M is killed when the entire vault becomes unstable and collapses. The rest of the Cooper Gang finds Sly's cane and calling card next to an alternate opening into the vault containing the entire wealth of the Cooper Clan. When Sly never returns, the gang splits up, except for Bentley and Penelope, who are in a relationship.

Dimitri becomes a rich scuba diver; the Panda King returns to China, starts living two doors down from Jing King, and screens all her future husbands (so far, she is still unmarried); Murray went to complete his training with the Guru, later becoming a professional race car driver with the van; Guru, after finishing training Murray, teaches his mystic art to a group of rock stars(who found him even in New York City); and Penelope and Bentley have created a new vault to contain the Cooper wealth that is shielded by lasers and built a time machine. In the end, Sly is seen holding hands with Carmelita on a balcony, when Bentley spots them. Sly looks straight at Bentley and winks. This seems to prove positive that Sly actually faked his amnesia. Why he did so is unclear, though the reason is most likely that he's given up the thieving life to be with Carmelita. As the game ends, Bentley says "That Sneaky Devil!".